Highlights

• To show their love for video games, many gamers invent creative ways to approach playthroughs, leading to some remarkable gaming feats.
• The speedrunning community has discovered several glitches that make it possible to beat classics such as Ocarina of Time in just a few minutes.
• From a drum set to a controller made of bananas, many people have created fascinating and bizarre control schemes to play games.

As the gaming world grows more complex each year, so does the demand for greater challenges. During the era of retro titles, gamers tended to compare feats like who had found the most secrets, who managed to pull off advanced moves, or who achieved the highest score. In the modern era, gaming accomplishments have become very different.

Gamers have taken on incredibly in-depth challenges to go down in history next to their favorite series, like Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda. While some feats may seem rather simplistic, a game's in-depth mechanics can make seemingly straightforward achievements incredible to witness.

Updated on March 5, 2024, by PJ Molloy: With streaming and live tournaments more popular than ever, there's been no shortage of remarkable speedruns, weaponless playthroughs, and many other jaw-dropping gaming accomplishments. We've added a couple more instances of incredible feats that gamers managed to pull off.

The best gaming feats can be anything from record-breaking speedruns to beating a game with an unusual control scheme. The following accomplishments are ranked in no particular order.

12 Beating Super Mario 64 By Playing Drums

When The Game's OST Simply Isn't Enough

Super Mario 64 has an outstanding soundtrack, which was taken to the next level when speedrunners started using musical instruments to control the plumber. A key example is when CZR hooked up a drum set to an N64 during a charity livestream and beat the game by jamming out.

Performing a drum roll would get Mario to run, and hitting the bass drum made him jump. The various symbols did everything from adjusting the camera to punching enemies. Pulling off speedrunning glitches with a regular controller is difficult enough, but CZR made it look like a breeze with some awesome drum riffs.

11 Someone Beat Tetris After 34 Years

One Of The Greatest Gaming Accomplishments Ever

For decades, it was assumed that Tetris would go on forever until you get a game over. This was finally proven false by Willis Gibson, also known as Blue Scuti, who was the first person ever to reach the kill screen, therefore beating the game.

He accumulated 6.8 million points during his run, cleared 1,511 lines, and reached level 157. Considering how unbelievably fast the bricks fall that late in the game, Blue Scuti's playthrough is regarded as one of the greatest achievements in video game history.

10 Beating Dark Souls 3 With A Guitar Hero Controller

Slaying Demons While Rocking Out

Dark Souls 3 is widely considered one of the hardest video games ever, and some expert speedrunners invent ways to crank up the challenge even more. One key instance is when Twitch streamer MezzPlays beat the game using a Guitar Hero controller.

To make this feat even more impressive, he finished the main campaign without taking a single hit, even emerging unscathed from the final battle against the Soul of Cinder. Not to mention, he reached the end in only four hours. This is especially astounding, given that Dark Souls 3 is notoriously difficult to speedrun.

9 Beating Breath Of The Wild Without Weapons

Who Knew Link Was A Pacifist?

The Legend of Zelda series has always offered countless ways to complete the main adventure, but none more so than Breath of the Wild. While there are endless routes leading to Hyrule Castle, Nintendo probably didn't expect someone to reach it without using weapons.

YouTuber and Twitch streamer SmallAnt conquered the weaponless challenge by bypassing the guardians and sneaking into the castle. He then defeated all four Blights and Calamity Ganon with dozens of well-timed parries and only 11 heart containers.

8 Beating Punch-Out Blindfolded

As If Little Mac Didn't Have Enough To Deal With

Nintendo's Punch-Out series is filled with brutal fights that give even the most experienced gamers trouble. If you thought dodging Bald Bull's insta-kill uppercut was tough, try doing it while blindfolded.

As if that wasn't enough, two speedrunners - sinister1 and zallard1 - managed to do it while sharing a controller. One of them handled dodging, the other focused entirely on attacking, and neither could see a thing. This includes the nearly impossible match against Mike Tyson. To top it off, they did it in front of a live audience.

7 Playing Super Mario Odyssey With A Dance Pad

Who Needs A Controller When You've Got Funky Dance Moves?

Mario games are known for being accessible to people of all skill levels, but some require an additional challenge. In this case, several gamers decided to get a cardio workout while platforming through the Mushroom Kingdom.

Many people have finished Mario games using dance pads to control the plumber. One example is when YouTuber PointCrow used this method to beat Super Mario Odyssey. This accomplishment demands in-depth knowledge of each stage, transformation, and enemy, along with plenty of stamina.

6 Playing Every Rock Band Instrument At The Same Time

Talk About A One-Person Band

Mastering one instrument in Rock Band takes some serious commitment, so playing all four requires unthinkable levels of skill and dedication. Miraculously, a YouTuber pulled off this very accomplishment in 2008.

DarthGollumKong uploaded a video where he rocks out to a couple of songs by playing guitar, bass, and drums while singing all at once. He achieved this by attaching one drumstick to each foot while holding both string instruments in his lap. He even managed to stay in time for most of the performances.

5 Someone Hacked A Building To Play Tetris

Stacking Bricks On The World's Largest Screen

It's great playing games on a big flat-screen TV, but a group of talented MIT students managed to play Tetris on a screen over 200 feet tall. They accomplished this by hacking the university's Green Building, using the lighting modules on the windows to form a makeshift LED screen.

Massive, multicolored tetrominoes fell from the top of the building, which they could move, rotate, and stack just like in an official game of Tetris. When they got a game over, the bricks collapsed and fell to the bottom of the screen.

4 Completing Three Mega Man X Games Simultaneously

The Most Challenging Way To Save Time

It's hard enough to beat one Mega Man X game, so simultaneously finishing three of them seems impossible. Surprisingly, someone pulled it off. YouTuber agwawaf uploaded a tool-assisted playthrough of the entire SNES trilogy being completed at the same time.

Each button press made X perform the same action in all three games, meaning agwawaf had to time each slide, jump, and attack perfectly to ensure constant progress in every run. The most impressive part is that they achieved 100 percent completion in each title.

3 Someone Played Super Mario World With A Recorder

And He Did It With His Nose

There have been many strange video game controllers over the years, but a woodwind instrument just might take the cake. One talented gamer challenged himself by playing Super Mario World with a recorder. Depending on the note, Mario would run, jump, etc.

Here's the catch - he played the recorder with his nose. Not only that, but he also performed some of the game's music while platforming through levels. The breathing technique required to do that is astounding, let alone the gaming skills needed to control Mario with your nostrils.

2 Beating Dark Souls With Bananas

The Tastiest Way To Destroy Monsters

Beating a merciless game like Dark Souls with a controller made out of bananas doesn't sound real, but someone actually did it. YouTuber SuperLouis64 hooked up nine individual bananas to various wires, creating a bizarre, yet delicious, control scheme where squeezing each fruit translated to a different button press.

Not only did SuperLouis64 defeat the final boss and beat the game, but he also raised money for charity while completing the challenge. By the time he reached the credits, he had raised over $700 for his cause.

1 Beating Brawl's Ocarina Of Time Demo

A Speedrun For The Ages

Fans of Super Smash Bros. Brawl will likely remember the assortment of retro Nintendo demos that could be unlocked. These "masterpieces" had various timers that would boot you back to the main menu once the time was up. The Ocarina of Time demo ended after five minutes.

Thanks to the help of many incredible speedrunners, several glitches were discovered that made it possible to reach Ganon and defeat him within the brutal time limit. This was first accomplished in 2021 by the speedrunner Savestate and was later documented by YouTuber LunaticJ.